PHILADELPHIA -- Jac Caglianone fulfilled a childhood dream and made a solid showing, but it wasn’t enough to advance out of the first round of the 2026 T-Mobile Home Run Derby at Citizens Bank Park.
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t make an impression. With his father, Jeff, pitching to him, Caglianone hit one of the longest, most impressive homers of the night, a Statcast-projected 477-foot rocket into the third deck in right field, a place few hitters have ever gone. It was the second longest homer by a lefty all night, behind only a 482-footer from Bryce Harper. He also hit the third longest by a lefty, 475 feet to center.
“It’s special power,” said teammate Bobby Witt Jr. “I knew he had it in the tank. It was fun to see him go out there and do what he did. I know it wasn’t the result that he wanted, but I know he had a lot of fun with his dad out there.”
In his second year in the big leagues, Caglianone has shown himself to have some of the best raw power in baseball. And he had the perfect pitcher, as his dad has been throwing to him since he was a kid.
“It’s really cool it’s the Derby,” he said on Monday afternoon. “It’s fun. Being able to do it with my dad, I’m super excited about that.”
Caglianone finished tied for sixth among the eight contenders with eight home runs in the opening round, and only the top four advanced. While CBP doesn’t have a reputation as being especially friendly or unfriendly to right- or left-handed hitters, it certainly seemed the righties had the most fun in the first round. All three right-handed hitters -- Willson Contreras, Jordan Walker and Junior Caminero -- launched at least 12 homers, placing first, second and third in the opening round, and Walker ultimately won the event.
Meanwhile none of the five lefties -- Harper, Caglianone, Kyle Schwarber, Ben Rice and Munetaka Murakami -- tallied more than 10 in the opening round, and among them, only Schwarber advanced to the second round. Schwarber did make the final before being pipped by Walker at the very end.
Caglianone found himself in fourth after four batters, but withstood a challenge from Rice. However, when Caminero hit his ninth on the way to 12 total, Caglianone was eliminated.
The Royals slugger got on the board quickly, hitting a Statcast-projected 462-foot laser off the Toyota sign at the base of the second deck in right field on his second swing. But then he went into a bit of a lull, going seven swings without a homer before heating up.
Caglianone was much more successful on the back half of his 20 swings, blasting four long balls in a row on swings 10-13, and seven in a nine-swing stretch. But he was unable to force bonus time by homering on his final allotted swing, leaving his total at eight.
He got some good ones in while he was at it, though. Caglianone didn’t just go to right field, as some of his most impressive shots were up the middle -- including two titanic homers over the batter’s eye in center field, coming in at a projected 475 and 463 feet.
His most majestic, though, was that stunner to straightaway right field, 477 feet into the third deck, a ball that garnered by far the most oohs and ahhs of anything he hit.
“I always tell people,” teammate Michael Wacha said, “it comes off his bat a little different than most people.”